NIGERIA: Rebels claim rare attack on oil facility in Lagos

Record ID: 234750

  • Title: NIGERIA: Rebels claim rare attack on oil facility in Lagos
  • Date: 14th July 2009
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (JULY 13, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE OF GOVERNMENT AND SECURITY OFFICIALS INSPECTING DAMAGE VARIOUS OF BLOWN UP OIL DOCKING TERMINAL, MIXTURE OF WATER AND OIL ESCAPING FROM PIPE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS DISCUSSING THE MATTER VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS AT THE SCENE NAVY PERSONNEL DEPLOYING AT THE SCENE OF ATTACK ELECTRICAL CORD USED BY ATTACKERS TO SET OF EXPLOSIVES VILLAGERS AT JETTY HEADING FOR LAGOS CITY (SOUNDBITE) (English) A LOCAL VILLAGER SAYING: "We were at the waterside there catching fun, having fresh air, suddenly we just saw three speed boats come to the navy post, started shooting, caught eh navy unawares, I believe the navy themselves faced them before they were overcome, they overcome the navy. Shooting face to face, turning around the facility, people were scared, the village people. So we just want the federal government to do something about it. They just came here and just threw a bomb and the whole place just exploded." VARIOUS OF TARKAWA BAY VILLAGE CLOSE IN LAGOS 10 (SOUNDBITE) (English) GOODLUCK EBOY, A RESIDENT FROM TARKAWA BAY VILLAGE, SAYING: "The people that came here were militants, we could not see their face because they were wearing black from head to toe." VARIOUS OF TARKAWA VILLAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) EFEANY, A VILLAGER FROM TARKAWA BAY, SAYING: "The navy itself ran, everybody ran." VILLAGE YOUTH SHOWING HOW PEOPLE RAN FOR COVER WHEN THE ATTACK HAPPENED SITE OF ATTACK AS SEEN FROM THE SEA SIDE PART OF THE TANKER DOCKING FACILITY IN THE WATER VARIOUS OF LAGOS AS SEEN FROM THE SEA VIEW OF YATCH IN THE WATER VARIOUS GV'S OF LAGOS AS SEEN FROM THE SEA
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA1O0EZCCPT94RNVUUWP03WZM2A
  • Story Text: Nigeria's main rebel group said on Monday (July 13) it sabotaged a loading dock for oil tankers in Lagos state, the first in the area since the group began its latest campaign of violence against Africa's biggest oil producer.
    The attack comes as the government prepares to release Henry Okah, the suspected leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), after more than a year in detention for suspected arms dealing.
    MEND said its fighters set loading tankers and the depot ablaze overnight at the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos, a key port where vessels offload gasoline, diesel and other fuel products from refineries in the southeast.
    The militant group said in a statement: "Heavily armed MEND fighters today ... carried out an unprecedented attack on the Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos state."
    A Reuters reporter at the dock confirmed fire damage to pipelines and to the terminal, which has shut operations for repairs.
    Officials from Lagos police and the state-run oil firm NNPC said authorities were investigating.
    MEND has rarely attacked sites outside the Niger Delta, focusing mainly on oil facilities in the Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states in southern Nigeria.
    Residents at Tarkawa Bay village, a few meters from the scene of the attack, said they saw three speed boats carrying armed men approach the docking facility before the shooting began.
    "We were at the waterside there catching fun, having fresh air, suddenly we just saw three speed boats come to the navy post, started shooting, caught eh navy unawares, I believe the navy themselves faced them before they were overcome, they overcome the navy. Shooting face to face, turning around the facility, people were scared, the village people. So we just want the federal government to do something about it. They just came here and just threw a bomb and the whole place just exploded," said one of the residents.
    Goodluck Obey, a 19 year-old villager, said the attackers concealed their faces, were very quick in their actions and used powerful boats.
    "The people that came here were militants, we could not see their face because they were wearing black from head to toe," said Obey, shaken by last night's gun fight.
    Another resident, Efeany, noted that when the shooting began he saw people fleeing the scene. He said that he ran as fast as he could to save himself.
    "The navy itself ran, everybody ran," he said.
    The militant group has claimed a series of attacks against the oil industry following the military's largest offensive in the Niger Delta for years in late May.
    The violence has forced Royal Dutch Shell, U.S. oil company Chevron and Italy's Agip to shut down around 300,000 barrels per day of production in the last seven weeks, lifting global oil prices.
    President Umaru Yar'Adua has offered a 60-day amnesty programme to militants and criminals in hopes of halting the unrest which has prevented Nigeria from pumping above two-thirds of its installed capacity since early 2006, costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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